The lights where still on at most of the house's rooms, Blaine's mother was probably still waiting for him to arrive home; his phone had received at least three calls from her and much to his dismay he had missed all of them.
He tried his best to walk out of his cars as slowly and silently as possible. Blaine was aware that whatever awaited him inside was for sure going to bite him in the ass regardless of how careful he was but he still opted to go the stealthy way.
As he began walking onto the porch he began regretting not taking his mother's offer to take a hat, at least that way hiding his now buzzed head would have been easier. He continued walking towards the front door and the moment he stood in front of it he took out his house keys. He took a deep breath while opening the lock.
Upon entering the house, Blaine felt a slight relief when he noticed both the living room and the hallway that led to the kitchen where empty. His joy was quickly dispelled once he saw his mother, with a angered look none the less, standing on top of the staircase.
"Blaine Devon Anderson, what's wrong with you?" She exclaimed in that authoritarian motherly tone Blaine had learned to both despise and respect. "I'm not even gonna bother asking you about that Sinead O'Connor you just pulled, but where in the hell have you been?"
Blaine's mother was normally a very composed woman but seeing her burst out like that just meant things where about to get serious. "I told you I was staying at a friend's house for the night."
"I'm aware, but that was only valid for yesterday. I called you a thousand times and you didn't answer a single one of them!" Mrs. Anderson yelled as she began walking down the stairs. "Why do you even have one of those expensive phones if you're not even going to use it?"
"Calm down mom! I was going to call but… you know, things happen and plans change." Blaine said, unable to think of a better excuse. Judging by he expression it didn't cut it.
"Well you're right about that and I hope you don't have any plans for the rest of the month because you're grounded." Mrs. Anderson said in a bit more calm yet still angry tone. "You won't be leaving this house without me or your father accompanying you. Now, give me your car keys."
"Oh for the love off… I'm eighteen mom, I'm basically legal in at least twenty other countries. You can't just ground me!" Blaine whined. "Besides, Christmas is in two days, I can't stay trapped here while everyone else's out there having the time of their lives."
"Well you should have thought about that before disappearing for almost two days." She said in a stern tone, her hand still waiting for Blaine's car keys.
"Mom please, Sugar was going to have a huge pre-Christmas party at her house tomorrow!" Blaine said, expecting to get some mercy out of his mother. "Everyone in school will be there."
"I don't care. You need to learn that your actions have repercussions on other people. I was worried to death about you."
"You worry too much." Blaine said dramatically. "I'm fine, can't you see?"
"You want to know what I see? I see a reckless, bald, eighteen year old who thinks he's a grown man but in reality is just a carefree, selfish boy. That's what I see!" Mrs. Anderson said, equally dramatically. "Now give me the keys unless you want me to extend your punishment till next year."
Blaine huffed and gave her his car keys angrily. "Why do you put so much effort into making my life miserable?"
"Oh please, grow up! You have both a roof and three meals a day, if I wanted to make your life miserable you be crying twenty-four seven." She exclaimed as Blaine walked pass her and up to the staircase. "By the way, we already have plans tomorrow. Your father will have an important dinner with the rest of the lawyers at his firm and they invited all three of us to join."
"Well I won't go!" Blaine answered angrily.
"It was not a question Blaine." His mother replied back. "Pick some decent clothes, it's more than enough that everyone there will think you look like a skinhead, looking nice would be the least you can do."
Blaine rolled his eyes as he heard his mother's comment and slammed the door to his room as hard as he could.
"Well someone looks happy." Sterling said while Sam entered the dressing room. He still had the jacket Blaine bought him; he had his hair covered in the bandana he had used a couple hours ago. "Come on, tell me what happened!"
"Nothing really." Sam said, unable to hide the wide smile he carried. "Well okay, remember that guy I told you the other day?"
"Um… you do realize that's like the most unspecific comment ever, right?" The blonde dancer said while changing into his work outfit.
"Alright, remember the guy that I had to do that private dance to?" Sam replied. "Better?"
"Yup, much better." Sterling answered while reaching out for the body glitter. "The one you said that dressed like a dork?"
"Yeah that one." Sam exclaimed. "By the way, can you pass the glitter?"
Sterling did as Sam said before continue with the interrogation. "Well, what about him?"
"I don't like to brag but we kind of got it on." Sam said proudly while taking off both his jacket and shirt.
Sterling quickly turned his sights towards Sam and gave him a wide grin. "Seriously? Well scored! I don't know how the guy looks but good for you."
"Looks mean nothing, he's awesome regardless of anything." Sam said while finally getting his shirt off. "But I would lie if I didn't admit he's actually pretty hot."
"Whoa, where did that come from?" Sterling asked while looking amazed at the outline of Sam's dragon tattoo.
"Oh this? Wasn't expecting you to notice it." Sam said sarcastically. "Just decided to go for it, remember how Julia said we needed to improve our game if we wanted to keep out jobs? I think the tattoo will give out points in my favor."
"Well it's certainly… flashy." The blonde replied, still unable to look away.
"Also, this happened." Sam said while taking the bandana off his head and exposing his jet-black hair with the red streaks.
"Wow, you really went all out with this!" Sterling said, bewildered at Sam's image overhaul. "I applaud your commitment."
"Heh, thanks." Sam said with as little pride as he could manage. "Hope Julia thinks the same."
"I'm sure she will, you basically changed your whole concept just to keep yourself fresh." Sterling said. "You're like a male Madonna. You where all 'Like A Virgin' before but now you just went all 'Ray of Light', I'm sure Julia will appreciate that."
Sam smiled. "I'm sure that if I understood half of those references of your I'd appreciate the compliment a lot more."
Sterling rolled his eyes at the comment. "Oh come on, 'Ray of Light'!" Sam just shook his head, unable to understand. "As in 'Frozen' or 'The Power of Goodbye'?" Sam still looked confused at the comments. "Where were you on the nineties?"
"I don't know." Sam exclaimed calmly. "Being a regular kid perhaps?"
"Oh right, I forgot you where into boring music. Care to remind me when was the last time Fleetwood Mac released an album?" Sterling replied mockingly.
"Hey, you keep the Mac out of this, they're awesome." Sam said defensively. "Besides, at least they dress age appropriately."
"Pfft, a stripper talking about dressing age appropriately? Now I think I've seen everything!" Sterling replied amused while Sam chuckled.
The remainder of the night went as usual; to Sam it went quicker than normal. Maybe it was the sense of satisfaction about the whole Blaine thing but regardless everything felt a lot faster than usual.
Once the club closed Julia had asked every dancer to pass by her office before leaving to receive their Christmas paycheck as the club would close for the holiday season, which, according to some of the more experienced dancers, was the time Julia used to go out on a short vacation.
As Sam's turn to enter the office followed, Julia greeted him before being asked to sit down. Considering how quickly some of the other guys had left the office Sam was a bit suspicious of the whole happening. Still he did as his boss said, considering he was expecting to ask her for a few extra bucks.
"So Sam, that's quite a look you got." She said while quickly analyzing Sam head to toes.
"I wanted to do whatever was in my power to revamp myself, you said you wanted us to improve our performance and I did as you said." Sam said trying as hard as possible to use the correct words to express himself.
"Well you sure did, yet it's kind of a downer. I really liked your previous look, it had that sort of 'boy next door' charm to it." She said while still looking at Sam with her ice-cold eyes. "Not that I don't appreciate the change, it just a bit sudden. I need some time to get used to it."
"Yeah… I think the same could be said about me." Sam said shyly. For some reason he always felt more intimidated when close to Julia, not only because of her being his boss but the way she looked at him made him feel judged.
"Well regardless of that, I'm glad you took that much… commitment to the job. That kind of attitude is well appreciated." She said while backing off a bit and opening some drawers of her desk. "You might also want to consider changing your stage name. For some reason your new look doesn't scream 'White Chocolate' anymore."
"I'll take that into consideration." Sam said sheepishly.
"Here's your Christmas check." She said while handing Sam a white envelope with his name. "Enjoy and take care during the holidays. We go back into business on the second day of January."
"Thanks Ms. Julia." Sam said while taking the envelope. "Also, if you don't mind me asking… do you think I could get a bit of extra cash?"
Julia raised an eyebrow at the remark. "You just received your Christmas paycheck, there's more money in that one than in a regular one."
"I know, the thing is that… well I kind of wanted to get someone a present and was planning on using this paycheck money to pay for next month's rent in advance." Sam said in an ashamed tone.
Julia stood quiet for a minute, which to Sam seemed like years, before letting out a heavy breath. "Why do you do this to me Sam? If I gave money to every guy who asks me for more out of the blue I would have none for myself."
"I'm sorry Ms. Julia, I didn't mean to be rude…" Sam replied.
Julia closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead before finally opening her eyes, she then opened another drawer and took both a pen and a bunch of papers out. "How much do you need?"
Sam suddenly looked at his boss in surprise, he would have never guess she would give in. "I, um… whatever you feel comfortable with, Ms. Julia."
"Alright, I'll give half of your regular paycheck as a bonus to you but this will stay between us. You understand?"
"Yes ma'am." Sam said eagerly as Julia wrote the new check.
"Here it is, if any of the other boys knows about this you can forget about receiving a check next month." She said in a firm tone, which oddly seemed a lot less harsh than what Sam would have expected.
"Understood." Sam replied. "Thank you Ms. Julia."
"Enjoy your holidays, but I expect to see you here by January. No excuses."
"I will, thanks again!" Sam said enthusiastically. Maybe all those stories he had heard about his boss weren't as true as he imagined. It was nice to know that she had a softer side to her.
Author's note: I'm deeply sorry for not posting in so long, my holiday hijinks kind of had me busier than what I expected. Also, I'm double sorry for making this a kind of short, filler chapter but I hope it served to show the relationship both Blaine and Sam had with their "mother" figures. (I'll explain Sam's parent's absence in future chapters though.) Lastly I'm sorry for the horrible grammar mistakes on my previous chapter, it was written late at night and most of the mistakes flew past me, I'll need to go back to it sometime in the future to correct them. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, the words where sure encouraging and I appreciate it, also just to be clear, I didn't intend to write a sexual scene last chapter (mostly because I need to work better on that) but I'll include more stuff in the future (yet I intend to keep it on the mild side as I don't want this to turn into a porn-ish fic). Thanks again for your reviews and suggestions!
Cheers!
